Relativity
by volta arovet
Summary: Brad and Fractal, models of the universe, the eternal conflict between scientists and philosophers, and breaking the universe one day at a time. Preseries


**_Relativity_**  
_by volta arovet_  
The Odyssey fic  
pre-series Brad and Fractal  
Models of the universe, the eternal conflict between scientists and philosophers, and breaking the universe one day at a time

* * *

"It's a matter of relativity, or rather, time _dilation_," Fractal said without preamble.

"Different perceptions of time or separate measurements of time?" Brad asked. That was one of the best things about being with Brad; Fractal could start conversations in the middle without bothering with banal introductions.

"The effects of apparent age and time experience on the maturation rate of an individual." Fractal settled himself primly on the dock, brushing away any specks of dirt that threatened to stain his pristine lab coat. Brad lay on his back, lazily trailing one bare foot through the water. He nodded at Fractal to continue.

"Your average kid may assume that one year of experienced time would equal one year of maturation, and yet that does not seem to correlate with the distribution of ages throughout the world."

"You mean how there are more twelve- and thirteen-year-olds than all other age groups put together?" Brad asked. "I have a few theories on that, myself."

"My model is based on the diminished returns as time progresses. I hypothesize that there is an upper limit to age, a maturation point "c" which we are all tending towards at rate "r" but will never achieve because as experienced time "t" increases, relative age "a" works as the function _a_ equals _f_ of _t_ equals _c_ times the sum of one minus the inverse of_r_ times the sum of _t_ plus the inverse of _r_, causing the age to approach _c_ continually but by ever-decreasing increments as _t_ approaches infinity."

"Hm," Brad said, and flicked his toe at a fish. "What is the upper limit? Fifteen?"

"Actually, through meticulous analysis of data, I have determined that the maximum age is, in fact, sixteen." He raised an eyebrow at Brad, who thought this over.

"So the only reason we've never seen a fifteen-year-old is because it takes too long to go from fourteen to fifteen?" Brad mused.

"Yes!" Fractal clapped his hands. "And the beauty of my model, as opposed to Joule's model of logarithmic progression, which is," he snorted, "highly laughable and has an R-squared value of only point-eight-five, is that my model preserves but still accounts for the age differentiation between individuals while still accounting for the convergence of peer groups over time while still discounting the possibility of progression into adulthood." He looked to Brad proudly, who was squinting at a dragonfly hovering over his nose.

"So the older kids are always going to be the older kids," Brad said, "but we're still always going to be _kids_." He turned to Fractal. "What if we're not?"

Fractal's entire face scrunched up. "What if we're not _what?_"

"What if one of us turns sixteen?" Brad was deadly serious—he was always serious, actually, it's just that sometimes he neglected to hide it under that demeanor of peaceful laziness.

Fractal waved him off. "Physically impossible."

"But _what if?_"

Fractal muttered, "Philosophers..." and rolled his eyes. "Then the laws of physics as we know them would break down and the world as we know it would be torn apart limb from metaphorical, subatomic limb."

"Oh," Brad said, and he was doing far too much cloud-gazing and far too little praising for Fractal's tastes. He wasn't even _debating_ with him, for goodness sake!

"Oh? Oh?!" Fractal leaned over Brad until he eclipsed his view of the sun and most of the sky. "Possibly the greatest breakthrough in the history of our world, a major leap down the path to a grand unifying theory of everything, and all you can say is 'Oh?'"

"I turned fourteen today." Brad's face was utterly blank.

Fractal blinked. "But that's—"

"Yes."

"But you're younger than—"

"I know."

"Oh." Fractal slowly lowered himself to the ground, shoulder just barely brushing against Brad's bare arm. "Oh."

* * *

_Note: The equation Fractal gives is not, in fact, a modification of the theory of relativity, since I couldn't figure out what the reference frame should be in this situation. The equation given is a generic equation which will approach a specific number as time approaches infinity. It has been modified so that age is zero at time equals zero, and a rate factor has been added in as well. It goes as follows:_

age equals f(t) equals c(1-1/r(t+(1/r)))


End file.
